The Plan 2.0

[Renara]

Okay, with v0.2 out I figure it's time to give a more formal idea of what the plan is now. What some of you may already have noticed is that we've begun assembling an actual team, and you'll see them with the appropriate forum title, please don't pester them for things though! There are now hidden team sections, which is where active development will take place, so when releases do occur they'll be more of a surprise. We are however still actively looking for new members, so please keep posting ideas, critiquing each other (constructively!), and posting your own little scenes or experiments, we'll be looking out for them!

Anyway, while v0.2 may receive some bonus updates, v0.3 is going to be the flagship version for the project, so I'd like to let you know a little about the plan:

• Version 0.2.x (bonus release branch):
  
  • Continued bug-fixes for the v0.2 release, as well as possibly small bits of new content. This will primarily be to keep an "actual" version of the game around till v0.3 nears completion. I'll probably work on this myself as a pet-project, but may consider adding some community content if it makes sense to! Don't expect anything major in this branch though.
• Version 0.3 (upgrade release):
  
  • Completely new project file-structure (will be made available early as a pre-release, hopefully sometime soon™ using the v0.2 content):
    
    • Will be based around the Flash Project "file" type (users of Flash 8 may need to look at upgrading to CS3 or CS4!).
      
    • Flash 10 standard (allows easier file-saving/loading, as well as tons of other useful features).
      
    • ActionScript 3.0 (see below).
      
    • Use of separtate .fla files, which will be linked. This allows individual scenes, characters, etc. to be updated without producing a huge ~130mb update.
      
    • Full support for SVN development; source-files will be released at key-stages on a public SVN, with private development occurring separately.
  • All-new game-engine which allow:
    
    • Much easier creation of scenes, characters, etc., and integration into the game.
      
    • Multiple character stats to produce a more varied game-mechanic.
      
    • An inventory system for carrying, and using, items.
      
    • Dynamic interface to allow for richer character interactions; conversation topics, multiple scenes, etc.
      
    • Ability to save or load a game, possibly with a persistent web-storage option as well as saving locally.
      
    • Tons of other Top Secret stuff.
  • Re-mastered and updated existing content (much more-so than v0.2). Likely a bit of new content as well.
• Version 0.4 (new content release):
  
  • More new content than you can wave a SharpClaw cock at!

So, while v0.2 is a good model to follow if you want to show us new content, v0.3 will be the real collaborative release, as I didn't realise before how awkward the "one big .fla" method would be for a project like this. It's fine for working on your own, but .fla is not a team-friendly file type, at least when the whole project is contained within it.

Also somewhere down the line there'll be a big web-site update; I've been in the process of re-designing my renara.com site (that is out of date now by several years, as well as lacking any of my new, much improved, artwork), the same code-base for which will be used to give Legend of Krystal a proper project-page, maybe a developers' blog and things like that. These forums and the mailing list will likely remain as-is for the foreseeable future, though I may have a look out for a nice forum-theme to add to the default ones.

[chndragon]

I look forward in being a piece of the puzzle in this amazing collaboration to make the largest pornflash game ever.

[Smackman]

Anyone up for doing some highly irrelevant chrono trigger scene? there could be like a pendant on the wall in bowsers castle and it could just yank some random characters through a time portal that fuck for some reason. (of course)
there could be all kinds of funny random scenes in this game

[Merek]

[*]Version 0.3 (upgrade release):

• Completely new project file-structure (will be made available early as a pre-release, hopefully sometime soon™ using the v0.2 content):
  
  • Will be based around the Flash Project "file" type (users of Flash 8 may need to look at upgrading to CS3 or CS4!).
    
  • Flash 10 standard (allows easier file-saving/loading, as well as tons of other useful features).
    
  • ActionScript 3.0 (see below).
    
  • Use of separtate .fla files, which will be linked. This allows individual scenes, characters, etc. to be updated without producing a huge ~130mb update.
    
  • Full support for SVN development; source-files will be released at key-stages on a public SVN, with private development occurring separately.

Very much yes. I'm actually more excited about this than actual new content right now, but that's my own special brand of madness. A clean, organized file structure will mean the world for collaboration, so it'll be great to see that take shape.

[Renara]

Might I suggest that bits of this newest version, that is a collaboration, be released little by little. Such as beta tests, and the like. It'd be easier to see what bugs need to be worked on, instead of finding them in a finished release.

The collaborative releases will aim for a more structured development cycle, so we'll have "in house" beta periods, and possibly public (or at least larger) betas before we release the game properly.

Forum regulars will likely be well positioned to get themselves in on the betas whenever they do occur!

[trunks2585]

What some of you may already have noticed is that we've begun assembling an actual team, and you'll see them with the appropriate forum title, please don't pester them for things though!

*looks under his name* ooh hello shiny new title!

on a side note I'm helping with story ideas, and i don't mind getting a few messages about thoughts that others have for the story, but I'm not going to be giving out game scripts either, well once we get that far that is.

[Ketsueki]

Have a few suggestions:

• Non SVN SCM ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revision_control :: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison ... l_software ); my preference is Git or Mercurial.
• Focused work divisions. One set of workers might focus on animations and other features, while another (larger and more public) group works on the engine for moving around, inventory, and human interface issues in general.

[Renara]

I'm afraid we're unlikely to go with a different version control system than SVN. SVN is well supported on all platforms, including within CS4 I believe, and I can't set up arbitrary C programs on my web-host anyway, whereas SVN is a one-click option.

[BillLumbergh]

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=TTF9IL0M

Flash CS4 portable for anyone who is interested in it. I figured I may as well just post it in this thread, if anyone would like to use it.

Thanks for that, been trying to find one without a password

[Ketsueki]

Speaking of 'finding one without a password', for those of us who'd rather not load up a windows VM and/or the link (and as non-graphical-artists don't technically need the IDE to contribute), could the code be broken out in to separate files? I'm not sure how much there would need to be if the game is going to be more a series of otherwise only visually connected pre-scripted motion sequences, but at least that way code that is reused could be consolidated in to single cases that are easier to maintain instead of duplicated for every time it's needed with only a variable change or two.

[Renara]

Speaking of 'finding one without a password', for those of us who'd rather not load up a windows VM and/or the link (and as non-graphical-artists don't technically need the IDE to contribute), could the code be broken out in to separate files? I'm not sure how much there would need to be if the game is going to be more a series of otherwise only visually connected pre-scripted motion sequences, but at least that way code that is reused could be consolidated in to single cases that are easier to maintain instead of duplicated for every time it's needed with only a variable change or two.

That's pretty much the aim of ActionScript 3.0 and the flash-project "file" type; while you can still use AS 3.0 much as action-script is used in typical animations, really all you should ever be putting in are calls to more relevant classes or such. Symbols are supposed to have classes associated with them, which causes them to automatically be instanced and (usually) destroyed as they enter/leave a scene.

Most of the code is hopefully going to be re-usable, and even looping within a scene ought to be handed over to the game-engine so that it can display an appropriate interface, or even potentially move through a scene automatically. The only tricky bits are referencing individual "screens" of a location, connecting them together and such, but I have a good idea of how this will be done, it just needs to be balanced so that it's easy to do. I'm hoping the end result won't be too technical for people to understand, though in all likelihood there will be a slightly higher learning curve, but then if all you want to do is animate scenes, or draw backgrounds or whatever then someone can potentially add all the scripting hooks in for you if your content is going to make it into the game, as it should be a relatively simple process.

I'm also hoping to have a few sample test files that are easier to hook content into if you just want to test a single thing or small location, without building the whole game just to see if it works right

[Ketsueki]

...
[*]ActionScript 3.0 (see below).
[*]Use of separtate .fla files, which will be linked. This allows individual scenes, characters, etc. to be updated without producing a huge ~130mb update.
[*]Full support for SVN development; source-files will be released at key-stages on a public SVN, with private development occurring separately.[/list]
...

git can talk to SVN repositories via a sub-module... they're just quite annoying to setup properly without grabbing the entire history.

.fla files, as far as I know, can only reliably be opened by Adobe (and older macromedia) tools.

The AS3.0 documentation mentioned being able to include (directive) external .as files which could contain just action-script to be inserted at that point. It would then not be very difficult to have entire libraries of instructions that could be developed and extended without using the adobe tools (even if it would be easier to test changes using said tools).

[BillLumbergh]

[quote="Renara"]
[*]Tons of other Top Secret stuff.[/list]/quote]

Any hints of the Top Secret Stuff? lol
And the Character creator engine sounds like an great idea. Thats way better that having someone like me thats new to flash and failing at making a character, good learning experience im tying to stick with tho lol

[Renara]

The AS3.0 documentation mentioned being able to include (directive) external .as files which could contain just action-script to be inserted at that point. It would then not be very difficult to have entire libraries of instructions that could be developed and extended without using the adobe tools (even if it would be easier to test changes using said tools).

Right, sorry I should have said that's what I intend to use, as it's basically how the flash-project "file" type works. You can give it a go yourself actually, just open a new flash project and there's only really two choices of file you can create, a .fla (as a standard .fla or a library), or a .as action-script file. The files will be structured to make it easy, and we'll have some documentation, possibly a wiki, telling you what classes you need and how to use them. My preference on structure is reverse domain name (e.g - com.legendofkrystal.Game), that kind of thing.


I just wanted to note just now that I'm going to start on the v0.3 developer pre-release this weekend, I'm not going to give a deadline till I have an idea how slow it'll actually be, I'm hoping it won't take too long though!

[FlareStar]

Moving away from the technical talk for a moment...

In terms of the development process, I thought it would be a good idea to hold polls as a simple way of finding what people want and what should be implemented.

While anyone can post their ideas and opinions, obviously it should be the people with the actual technical skills to decide what would be ultimately included (not that i count =p)

Now here is my idea of "refining the story", up to the big players on wether or not to use it.

As the main focus is on star fox, I think it would appropriate for Andross to be the main villan/end boss

Setting the story (Building on C-Sharp's idea): A new planet within the Lylat System has appeared out of no where. In response the Cornerian Army has sent Krystal and Fox to investigate the planet. What they dont know is that this planet was created by Andross who since their last encounter cheated death by making a pact with parademons(or whatever). In return for power and new life Andross must create a distortion in space and time large enough to allow the parademons to enter the universe and wreak havoc with their peverted lust. To do this he is given a set of crystals which must be filled with "sexual energy" and so the planet Andross created is one of sin and depravity. The planet was created by warping the fabric of the cosmos which drew on places from across the universe and/or multiple dimesions which is why places like Hyrule and the Mushroom kingdom exist on the planet. Andross has also recriuited allies (i.e. Ganondorf, Bowser, etc.) to carry out his plan. Krystal must travel across this planet, freeing captured sex slaves (by fucking their captors senseless ^_^) and stop Andross before the crystals have been filled (of course at the end Andross will say "ha, you are too late, thanks to your exploits the crytals are almost full, all I need is one more sacrifice, and I CHOOSE YOU, cue sex off)

In terms of what characters/worlds should be put in, I think we should first focus on characters and settings from Starfox, Mario and Zelda as these were PlayShapes initial focus and other series added later.
Girls for Mario: Peach obviously, Daisy and Rosalina
Girls for Zelda: Zelda of couse, Midna, and lests not forget the likes of Saria, Malon, Din and Nayru.

I also hear people wanting to implementing pokemon and I think there are two ways it should be done, either:
1: A pokemon area simialr to mario and zelda or
2: Pokemon scattered throughout the planet which need to be caputured and given to certain perverted NPC's to progress the game (like in Bowser's Castle with Donkey Kong)
Whether or not there should be a pokemon sex training mechaninc will be determined later.

I am also in favour of putting Samus and Ridley especially since someone is already working on Ridley.

I have many more ideas but you guys are probablly busy working on other stuff so I'll stop for now.

[Smackman]

"lets have a poll instead of posting ideas... so heres my idea"

I think they've decided more or less on the plot, suggestions are suggestions but IMO people need to stop posing entire concept ideas because a team member would probably be like "oh look another complete story line w/e" and they wouldnt notice the one new thing you may have or may not have suggested

[trunks2585]

actually as one of the members working on the story i'm open for people's ideas, we have an idea of how to continue things from the dark woods, given playshapes original idea, but there's still a lot of ideas you guys are coming up with that are very useful.

that being said flarestar, here's some of my feedback.

I wouldn't say the main focus is on starfox, but nintendo in general, krystal just happens to be the lead role and the dinosaur planet area is the starting point. Andross has been killed like what, 2-3 times now? even the games finally left him dead. And I don't know if the team wants to go with c-sharps idea, let along a version that builds off of it. I don't want to say too much about what we have planned (I can't remember how much of it we've made public) but i have doubts about us going with this sort of 'epic quest' like saving the world.

[TheProcastinator]

Hey all, I think the idea of breaking the main .fla file into a series of smaller files is an excellent idea. My computer is a lightweight compared to today's standards and struggles pretty badly trying to chew that 100MB+ piece of pie, although I guess I could just copy the bits I want out of main file and mess about with them from there.

[JL95]

It's probably good if we set up an all ideas thread, where everyone posts all their ideas down; and someone "filters" through all of them based on what there already is for the story and suggest where the idea could go into.

In fact, I think I will go and start that thread to see if it works out.

[Armisael]

Awesome, I can't wait to get my hands on the update!